Five months back, the birth of a Pari brought happiness and fulfilment to the family, being first born, everyone was waiting for her arrival. She was born at a small town in district Bulandshahar, Uttar Pradesh. Their happiness could not last very long when she became critically sick and was rushed to the district hospital. At the hospital, the parents got a shock when the doctors told them that their princess had Down Syndrome and also a heart ailment. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes developmental and intellectual delays. As a new born, every moment of the day turned into nightmare for the poor parents as she had difficulty in breathing which seemed as if she had chest congestion, she started making unusual noises during night time. She was referred to a specialist who suggested getting an Echocardiology test done. Pari was also not gaining any weight, she looked pale and not of her age at any point. The echo report was not good as the consultant diagnosed a serious heart ailment, which needed immediate treatment. Feeling helpless, they tried talking to people and surfed the internet, this was when they came to know about Child Heart Foundation. They contacted us and came to Delhi for consultation and hope for help.
The family came down to Delhi in the month of November for Pari’s first screening, she was around 2 months old at that time. After a thorough check up by Dr. Vikas Kohli was diagnosed with Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA). He suggested she gets a surgery where she would have PARI- OUR HEART WARRIOR to undergo PDA device closure. The other option was through medicine treatment which again would have been a long process and also expensive. The surgery estimate was around 2,10,000. This got the family really worried as they were not financially sound. She was born during the time when the pandemic was almost hitting its second wave in the country. Her father unfortunately lost his job during this period. Her father used to work at a security company, this was a daily wager kind of a job where he used to get payments for the days he has worked. He used to earn a meagre amount of 9000 per month (approximately) and for most of the months, earned lesser due to losing working days, running around for medical help for his daughter. The only solace was both financial and emotional help from Pari’s maternal grandmother. This was adding to stress as she too depended on her husband’s pension money. Understanding the state of their situation the team at CHF decided to raise funds for the Pari. In partnership with Delhi South Rotary Foundation, Pari got her life back.
